Abstract This proposal is a request for support for junior investigators pursuing research relevant to the NIDDK to attend the 2017 FASEB Biology of Cilia and Flagella Science Conference. Research on the biology of the cilium has seen explosive growth as its ubiquitous roles in cell signaling and human disease are now well recognized. Ciliary diseases or ?ciliopathies,? include the most common life-threatening inherited disease of humans, Polycystic Kidney Disease, as well as retinitis pigmentosa, obesity, and mental retardation; all components of the human syndromic pathologies Nephronophthisis, Bardet-Biedl, Meckel Gruber, and Joubert syndromes. Cilia regulate hedgehog signaling which has been implicated in PKD as well as basal cell carcinomas, medulloblastomas, rhabdomyosarcomas, glioblastomas, and breast and prostate cancers. Ciliated neurons generate our senses of smell and vision and recent work highlights intriguing new roles for cilia as regulators of G-protein coupled receptor signaling that control appetite and other behavioral responses. The FASEB Summer Research Conference on Cilia and Flagella is the premier international meeting on cilia and signaling. Meeting oral and poster sessions will cover the latest work on ciliary structure/transport/motility, centrioles/basal bodies, ciliary dynamics and signaling, cilia in the kidney and nervous system, cutting-edge technologies, as well as clinical topics on Polycystic kidney disease, congenital malformations, cancer, and pathology associated with human syndromic ciliopathies including blindness and obesity. This international meeting is very well attended by cell, molecular, and developmental biologists, human and model organism geneticists, biochemists, physician scientists and clinician scientists with interests ranging from the fundamental biology of cilia to the molecular mechanisms and therapeutic treatments for human cilia-based diseases. The goal of the conference is to bring together basic scientists, clinicians, and researchers in the pharmaceutical industry to generate research collaborations and stimulate innovative new research directions. In addition to scientific sessions, two professional development sessions are planned. A Meet-the-Experts session will be held where senior members of the field meet informally with junior scientists to discuss career development issues and questions raised by attendees. In addition we will hold a career development session for early career investigators to hear perspectives from Academic and Industry researchers as well as representatives from the Publishing field and Private Kidney Foundations about career paths and strategies. These sessions provide an open forum on career development and introduce as many career options as possible to young scientists. Junior scientists play an essential role at the FASEB Biology of Cilia and Flagella Science Conference, composing a substantial portion of invited speakers and bringing a vitality and innovative spirit to this meeting.